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Let me get this straight; someone who faces someone on the field of battle who is hell bent on killing them is the same thing as an asshole shooting unarmed innocent civilians? What is this person saying, that Holmes is a hero?

The kind of person who wants to kill strangers tends to get weeded out of the enlistment process very quickly, because we aren't looking for sadists or psychopaths. Sadists make lousy leaders, since they inflict maximum pain on their subordinates, and psychopaths are as likely to turn their weapons on their own side as the enemy. Neither group is a good fit for an institution that demands teamwork and personal discipline, but, of course, a DUmpster who has never thought about what kind of person defends him except in terms of the most blatantly negative stereotypes isn't going to see that.

Several years ago, I got tagged to supervise a detail where some Soldiers were setting up equipment for a recruiter at a job fair. A few high school kids came by and did the obligatory "No more war" chant, and I calmly waited until they had finished and then asked them how they proposed to end war. This led to a fairly long discussion of the value of a military force as a preventative measure, and considerable historical references to back it up (imagine a verbal version of one of my longer posts, with Q&A sessions). At the end, I don't think that I convinced them, but I had argued them into admitting that they had more to think about, and they were surprised that someone in uniform would take the time to actually engage their ideas and take them seriously enough to refute them without simply insulting or dismissing them.